MyCareer.com.au

Aust firm tells SCO to detail evidence

A Perth-based open source consulting company has told the SCO Group that unless it details, by February 1, the specifics of what it claims are IP violations in the Linux kernel, the company would refer the matter to the appropriate legal authorities.

Leon Brooks, director of CyberKnights, wrote to Kieran O'Shaughnessy, the SCO Group's regional general manager, Australia and New Zealand, yesterday after SCO announced the availablility of its intellectual property licence in Australia and New Zealand.

SCO claims that some UNIX code which it owns has been incorporated into Linux; this is the basis for selling the licences.

"If SCO ANZ can't specifically identify any significant portions of The SCO Group's intellectual property in a timely manner in any of the Linux distributions which CyberKnights deploys, we must assume that SCO ANZ is making fraudulent claims and must, in defence of CyberKnights' good name, vigorously pursue public acknowledgement of fault and material redress from SCO ANZ," Brooks said.

He said the slurs cast on Linux were affecting his business as he dealt exclusively with open source software, of which Linux is the best known.

"Basically, we're asking SCO to put up or shut up," he said. "A lot of badmouthing is going on, with no specific instances cited of code which infringes their copyright. As a director of CyberKnights, I personally know and trust several contributors to the Linux kernel, including the original author, Linus Torvalds. As of three days ago, Linus told me that he knows of no substantial code in his Linux kernel source code tree which could possibly be subject to ownership claims by The SCO Group."

Brooks said that several people at last week's Adelaide conference on the use of open source software in government had indicated that they were holding off on adoption or testing of software of this genre for public sector use until the case which SCO has filed against IBM is resolved.

"So it is incorrect to say that all this talk has had no effect. Surveys may have been done and come up with the conclusion that the case has had no effect on Linux adoption but they are wrong - they asked the wrong questions of the wrong people," he said.

Brooks said he would first go to the ACCC if SCO did not reply to his letter by February 1. "If that does not resolve things, I will take advice from my lawyers about direct legal action," he said. "This thing has gone on too long; someone has to bell the cat."

A complaint, filed by the group Open Source Victoria in July last year, is pending with the ACCC. The last heard of this was in October last year when the consumer watchdog asked SCO to provide information about the complaint.

O'Shaughnessy said he had no comment about Brooks's letter. "We have announced the availability of the licence in Australia and New Zealand and said it will be available through our resellers by February 1," he said.

When asked why the media release which provided this information had not specifically told commercial Linux users - whom O'Shaughnessy said were SCO's target - to take out a licence or else face the consequences, he said "in effect, this is what is being said."

O'Shaughnessy said SCO's intellectual property had been unauthorisedly used in the Linux kernel; commercial Linux users were thus being asked to obtain licences to use this code. He said customers were being contacted by SCO and those who were unaware of the licence and its implications were being made aware.